Cholesterol And Nicotine

 

You have to be careful when you read material about health and medicine. Many words seem so alike, but are in fact quite different. This is a real case of mistaken identity. If you read about this, It is most probable that you were reading about nicotinic acid, but though the name is similar, it has nothing to do either with smoke of the nicotine found in tobacco. Nicotinic acid is also called niacin as well as vitamin B3. While niacin is commonly used to treat a vitamin deficiency disease called pellagra, it is also known to be effective in lowering the cholesterol levels in the blood.

 

About Vitamin B3 or Nicotinic Acid

Niacin is found naturally in meats, eggs milk and dairy products, and is not lost from the food during the cooking process. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for an adult male is about 18 mg per day, while women should have 13 mg daily (unless they are breast feeding in which case they should have 18 mg daily as well). To treat pellagra, doses in the range of 300 mg to 1000 mg are used. However, some people take much higher doses when using niacin to treat high cholesterol, as much as 3 grams a day (that's 3000 milligrams), and at that level side effects are common. These side effects include flushing, a redness of the skin especially the face and neck, and headaches. Although niacin is available over the counter as a vitamin supplement, it should only be used under the supervision of a physician when high doses are required for cholesterol control.